Manson Family Member Denied Parole

Patricia Krenwinkel's parole hearing resumed Thursday
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 22, 2017 3:22 PM CDT
Manson Family Member Denied Parole
In this file photo taken March 3, 1970, Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel is seen heading to court in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/ File)

California's parole board denied parole for convicted killer Patricia Krenwinkel—a follower of cult leader Charles Manson—Thursday, the AP reports. Krenwinkel, 69, was previously denied parole 13 times for the 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in Southern California. The next night, she helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to ignite a race war. Commissioners postponed the latest parole hearing in December while officials investigated whether battered women's syndrome affected her state of mind at the time of the murders. The hearing resumed Thursday at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles, the AP reports.

Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met the then-33-year-old Manson at a party. She testified that she left everything behind three days later to follow him because she believed they had a budding romantic relationship. She testified in December that her feelings faded when she realized Manson was routinely sleeping with other women, including underage girls, became physically and emotionally abusive, and trafficked Krenwinkel to other men for sex. She said she left him twice only to be brought back, that she was usually under the influence of drugs and rarely left alone. "It started with love, and then turned to fear," she said. (More Patricia Krenwinkel stories.)

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